DWI Checkpoints Start For Labor Day Weekend

COLUMBIA - The holiday weekend starts early as police set up DWI checkpoints around the state. Thursday was the beginning of a three day crack down on alcohol enforcement. The labor day checkpoint can come either Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Officers will be setting up the checkpoints within city limits between 10 p.m. and 3 a.m. Officers will set up in a safe area and decide on a car by car basis if the driver should continue driving or stop and be evaluated with a standard field sobriety test. Haden said a successful checkpoint would not stop any drivers, but that is not always realistic.

"It's just not worth taking the risk, we know common sense tells us that people drive impaired probably everyday and probably every night while we know those numbers are going down we also know there's no way we can catch them all so really we want this to be a deterrent," said Officer Jessie Haden.

Haden says the state thought Labor Day weekend would be best for a statewide alcohol enforcement.